One Day, Momofuku Milk Bar May Go to the UWS, and Sara Jenkins May Have a Falafel Shop

July 14, 2011

Over on the Upper West Side, rumors have been circulating that Momofuku Milk Bar plans to open an outpost on Columbus Avenue in the upper 80s. But Leslie Behrens, Milk Bar’s pastry sous chef, told DNAinfo that the bakery is in “the very, very, very early stages of thinking about doing something with Milk Bar in that area, but nothing is set in stone.”

Whether or not it actually happens, a northerly expansion would make sense for the Milk Bar, which recently branched out to Williamsburg. As downtown eateries from the Mermaid Inn to Blossom to Magnolia Bakery have learned, there’s gold in the hills of the Upper West Side, where many people like to dispose of their income on things like cupcakes and crab cakes, particularly those that already have an established cachet farther south.

So it’s no wonder that Sara Jenkins has talked in the past about possibly opening a Porchetta in the neighborhood. Whether or not she will is another story, but today she happened to mention to The Amateur Gourmet that she still has a fantasy — also previously mentioned — of opening a falafel shop and/or meat restaurant. “And then my totally secret fantasy is to do a Lebanese restaurant,” she told Adam Roberts. “I’d do like what I did with Porchetta, I’ll take over a falafel stand and make it really really good.” And with any luck, she will.

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